If you’re looking for good personal statement topics, don’t worry, you are not alone: millions of students all over the world are in the same boat. Writing such an essay is an extremely responsible task because in many ways, it determines the degree of success your application is going to have. To overcome your competition, the first thing you should do is understand what a personal essay is and why colleges and universities ask their potential students to write one. Personal statements for undergraduate admissions are a piece of writing describing personality, achievements, hobbies, and plans of students who want to join a specific educational establishment.
What makes them important? They help the committee see who a person is, what they think, what motivations they have, and how well they are capable of essay writing. Reading through academic numbers is great, but the only thing they indicate is how well a student could study. What professors want to see instead is how motivated and inspired people applying to them are, and this could be done only via an application essay. The tricky question is, where to find a great topic for it?
Tips For Choosing the Best Personal Statement Ideas
Finding a topic is always difficult. It has to resonate both with you and with people who are going to review your work, so it is vital not to make a mistake. Here are some tips you could use for solving this problem.
- Think about your life. Even the most boring and monotonous lives have their small tragedies and victories. Start remembering them. Go through key moments and think about details surrounding them. The clearest memories are the best foundation for essay topic.
- Focus on an interesting event. Whatever personal topics you consider, they must revolve around a prompt that evokes some genuine feelings in you. It must be something you are passionate about, something that has really affected your growth as an individual. Feel invested as you describe this situation.
- Add a challenge to it. Don’t forget that such essays should somehow show your strong sides or your willingness to learn. Describing a situation that didn’t have a meaningful impact related to your growth won’t fit here, so focus on challenging memories. Topics must be unique.
- Speak by yourself. Application essay is your chance to speak and present things from your perspective. If you ever felt misunderstood, betrayed, or under-evaluated, this is an opportunity to shed light on it and explain everything in a way you see it. By combining these four tips, it’ll be easier to narrow down a potential range of topics and choose a truly great one.
50 Inspiring Topics for Personal Essay
Apart from options we mentioned above, there is another alternative. When you are fruitlessly looking for possible topics and cannot find anything, it is time for using the Internet. There are many lists with suggestions people could choose from — they offer free themes and encourage students to pick them in case they find them inspiring. We present 50 top ideas that could give you a sense of direction.
Personal Statement Topics on Your Past
These topics for personal statement never get old. Look into your life; consider every relevant moment that has ever happened. Here are some ideas.
- First Day at School: My Fears, Hopes, and Strength I Gained
- Living with Workaholic Parents & How This Background Made Me Who I Am
- Accepting a Concept of Death: Frightening Story of Loss, Recovery, and Acceptance
- Overcoming Envy and Learning Self-Control
- Why I Hated Risks and How I Learned to Start Taking Them
- How Reading This Book Changed My Life & Goals
- When I Realized Why I Want to Go to College
- The Event That Brought Me to a Start & Changed Direction of My Life
- The Thing You Did That You Are Still Proud Of
- Which Event Made You Regain Faith in Humanity
Personal Statement Ideas About Challenges
We all have challenges, and some of them leave a deep mark on our hearts. Check these good personal statement topics examples — maybe they’ll remind you of a problem that you managed to overcome.
- First Taste of Betrayal & Its Impact on Me
- My Biggest Accomplishment and Challenges on Its Way
- How I Stepped Out of My Safety Zone & Changed My Core Belief
- How Being Academically Unsuccessful Made Me Want to Be the Best
- The Biggest Embarrassment of My Life: Learning From Mistakes
- Having Two Best Friends at Once Is Tough
- Coping with Stereotypes Inflicted By Other People
- Days When Panic Attacks Did Not Let Me Get Up From Bed
- Understanding Depression and Learning to Live with It
- Event That Broke My Heart & How I Healed It
Personal Statement Prompts on Academic Subjects
How about some subject-related ideas for personal statements? They are always welcome by application committees.
- My Love for Seeking Truth Was Born the Day I Discovered the Role of Law in Our Lives
- Visiting the Hospital for the First Time and Why It Fuelled My Interest in Medical Education
- My Work Was Stolen & It Woke My Interest in Intellectual Property
- Why Seemingly Impossible Career Seems Closer Now
- My Thirst for Knowledge and Why It Could Make Me a Good Journalist
- The Most Beautiful Building I’ve Ever Seen or the Day When My Love for Design Was Born
- Spending Every Sunday in My Life Cooking: Where Does That Lead Me?
- Outrageous Historical Lies and Why That Inspired Me to Study History
- From Toys to Engineering Devices: I Was an Inventor Before I Could Work
- Animals Are as Important as People: My Hopes For Becoming a Vet
Personal Qualities Topics
People might have the same interests, but their personal characteristics make them different. These personal statement prompt examples could help demonstrate it.
- Being the Definition of Stubbornness & Its Ups and Downs
- Why My Resilience Makes Me a Good Fit For This College
- How Love and Education Come Together: My Background and My Goals
- Three Key Events That Boosted My Creativity
- Suspiciousness Is My Second Nature: It’ll Help Excel in My Field
- Passion for Politics I Carried Through Life: Then vs. Now
- Loving to Argue: Childhood Screaming Matches vs. Mature Evidence-Based Discussions
- Crying When Others Cry: How My Empathy Lets Me Live Complete Life
- What Having Creative Mind Means For Me
- I Wanted to Be a Superhero: How It Affected Who I Want to Be Now
Diversity Ideas
College personal statement topics related to diversity never lose their relevance.
- Witnessing Cruelty for the First Time and What It Taught Me
- The First Time I Faced Prejudice and Cried
- Complex Story of Figuring Out My Sexuality: Why Things Should Have Been Easier
- How My Race Affected My Social Acceptance
- Understanding Racism After Making a New Friend
- How I Believe Diversity Should Be Publicly Celebrated
- How Being Strange Became a Norm For Me
- Small Ways in Which I Intend to Change This World
- Why Diversity Is Key to Achieving Peace
- Racial Make-Up of My School Class and How It Shaped My Views
Write an Essay That’ll Move Everyone
As long as you’re truly invested in your chosen topics for personal statements, you have every chance of crafting a stunning essay. Basically, you’ll be retelling a meaningful experience from your life, showing how you found purpose and how it led you to select this specific college. This kind of writing is always emotional, so you could affect your readers and share your joy, pain, and determination. The more effective you are in this, the more likely it is that you’ll reach success. After you settle on personal statement essay topics, write about them with sincerity and passion, and this will definitely get you some precious points!
